Forget the copyright stuff, why would eBay want sellers using photos that aren't of the items in the auction? To encourage more people to sell easily?

I'm sure that's what they're thinking but, again, logic fails them. All it does is encourage laziness by the sellers, creates an even easier avenue for sellers to deceive buyers and takes another step further away from their original business model and closer to that of a regular retail store.

I don't know if they do it for books, but for DVDs you can list using their built-in tools that provide a cover photo for you along with details about your item based on the barcode or ISBN (I forget which right now) number. If they start building a catalog of photos for all sorts of things it's doing the same thing, trying to normalize listings. That's great for a store but for an auction site that started as a digital yard sale?

I want to see the item I'm buying. There are exceptions; if I'm actually buying from a store and they have a Gentle Giant bust, sealed, I don't really care if the photo is of the actual bust I receive. If I'm buying a loose bust from a regular guy, I want a photo so I know what shape it is in and if it's complete and unbroken.

If I bother to sell on eBay again, I'm definitely watermarking my photos.

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"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

Follow the link provided and it only takes a minute or two to set your preferences to not give permissions to use your photos.

That just takes away eBay's permission but once sellers catch on that eBay is doing this more will think they have carte blanche to take photos from other auctions and use them, permission or not. It's done now but there have been feedback options as the photo owner to report stolen images. If eBay's the one "stealing" your photos if you don't opt out, what kind of message does that send to sellers?

I'm more and more disgusted with eBay, every time they announce some new plan it seems to make the site worse, not better.

I don't buy anywhere near as much as I used to because I don't trust the sellers, and I haven't sold anything in probably a year because I don't trust the buyers not to try to screw me out of either the item or my cash, or both.

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"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

Really I brought this up more to ask Jason why he allows his pictures to be used constantly by these sellers on eBay. I mean it's just that you take the time and these bastards just swipe them up no work involved.

I just think if I put in as much work as Jayson I'd be a tad bit pissled.

I'm pretty sure from prior conversations that he IS pissed about it. Just not pissed enough to do anything about it. What are you going to do - send each seller a nasty email about it? Probably just not worth even more time trying to fight it.

Exactly. I mean it'd piss sellers off (some that I see using 75% of their pics from Yak) and that would maybe get through their lazy ass noggins to take pics themselves. I would definitely have thought about what Rob said and add a watermark, maybe not as huge as Rob stated , but I guess that point is moot now since you'd have to go back through the entire archive and add it.

It was just something I've noticed happening more and more lately. Maybe it's a compliment since more users are using the pictures, but to me it's just a bunch of lazy asses who are also likely the guys who'd swap out a figure in a second to list on eBay.

Scum's taken Ebayers to task on it and have had the auctions removed... I think it might be worth the effort just to annoy the sellers.

Okay, but that's what I mean. Jay already spends a ton of time creating the Yak photo guide and he's got work and a personal life. He could dedicate a bunch of time to going after people that rip off his photos, but is it worth the effort just to annoy sellers? What if he spends a ton of time and they still get away with it or others get away with it?

Don't get me wrong - I think its unfair of people to steal his pics and they should have to either get permission or take them down. I just don't know if the payoff is worth the time.

To the best of my knowledge, when Scum did it, they simply emailed Ebay and said, "these (listed auction links) are using photos from our website with our watermarks, blah blah blah" and it was handled. I don't think it was a hastle really.

I mean it's Jayson's stuff so it's not like I'm sitting here telling him he better do it or else... That's totally up to him obviously. I'm of the opinion just dropping an email in an effort to stop it may be worth the time, but Jayson may figure it's not worth it. No big deal really either way.

Interesting thread. For a while, I did contact sellers that "borrowed" my photography, but it was an exercise in futility and I didn't want to police eBay looking for violators, so I have peacefully come to terms with it.

Sure, I could watermark the hell out of them, but I rather not a) because I'm lazy like that and b) who really wants to see a watermark on every photo I churn out?

Of the power sellers out there that do use my images rather frequently, most of them do actually credit the site or me as their source in the item description, so I'm fine with it. And much to my surprise, some of those sellers even asked my permission to use them before hand.

I guess what it comes down to is that I take pictures of toys for collectors to reference as a hobby, but a majority of the reason I do it is for my own amusement. If some seller uses them to make it easier to flip their crap, so be it. And if some buyer gets burned not getting exactly what's pictured, that's their problem.